Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
The slump in housing sales accelerated in August, the Greater Toronto Real Estate Board said.
Sales in Toronto were down 29 per cent in the first two weeks of August compared to last year. The average sale price was $412,934, 3.5 per cent lower than mid-July.
The number of new listings were 8 per cent lower than last year at 4,770.
"It makes sense that the number of transactions has dipped over the past few months in comparison to last year's record results," said board president Bill Johnston.
Each of the country's 101 real estate boards maintains its own sales data, and can release it at any time. The Toronto board - the largest in the country - updates its stats every two weeks.
The Canadian Real Estate Association released its monthly compilation of all the board's data earlier this week, showing sales sank 30 per cent from the same month a year earlier. Nationally, prices slipped 3.5 per cent from June
The average resale price nationally was $330,351, according to CREA. In June, the price was $342,662.
Economists suggest many Canadians bought houses earlier in the year than they would have otherwise to take advantage of low interest rates and to beat the introduction of new taxes in British Columbia and Ontario. This caused abnormal gains in the first half of the year, but is expected to mean a lull as the year winds down.